Buner Reliefs - Indian Scenes

Indian Scenes

Again other reliefs show people in Indian dress, typically holding lotus flowers.

All of these friezes, being contemporary with each other, hint at an intermixing of Indo-Scythians (holding military power), Indo-Greeks (confined, under Indo-Scythian rule, to civilian life, and usually shown revelling with drinking cups) and Indians (possibly most directly involved in religious matters, and shown with the reverencial lotus).

These reliefs usually belonged to Buddhist temples, where they were used as stair-risers, or thresholds to niches on Buddhist monuments. In addition to the Greek costumes depicted in them, the artwork of the reliefs is Hellenistic in style and content; they are considered some of the earliest examples of Greco-Buddhist art. They are usually dated to around the 1st century CE, although they might go back to the 1st century BCE, thus corresponding to the period of Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian rule in the Indian subcontinent.

One of the most famous of these reliefs is the one located in the Victoria and Albert Museum.